iPad Games (and Apps) Catch All

Rebuild was a lot of fun. I played it through several times, definitely worth it if you don't have it, and a good game for the platform.

City builder with zombies? Interesting. Someone says it's good? Take my money.

Maybe the price drop is because people are excited about the new Walking Dead season soon.

I played the the online version and didn't rate it much. Really enjoying it on the pad though. The character generator is hilarious.
Regards,
-Abstinence Ireland

For you baseball fans, the best baseball strategy game on a mobile, iOOTP is just 99cents this weekend. Go for it!

Alien Frontiers has dropped. KS backers should be getting their codes soon.

$4.99? I thought I remember the cost being higher. I think I complained about that. At $4.99 I will be buying, without a doubt.

EDIT: Double post! However - first impression - No tutorial. Hmm...this might take some time to learn

No tutorial? Yeah, that's not cool.

Ok. 2 games down with the easy AI. Now for real first impressions of Alien Frontiers

Pro's

  • I really like the dice mechanic. Yahtzee + worker placement. Very slick
  • The manual is present, and easily accessible in the game.
  • The UI is pretty slick
  • There is a log of every action taken
  • No serious bugs (thus far)

Cons

  • No tutorial, and no specific pop ups. Basically, if you want information, you have to read the manual.
  • It looks like multiplayer is pass and play only.
  • It can be confusing trying to understand what dice combos work with which spot, or why you're losing dice.
  • I'm not sure if its retina resolution or not.

All in all, I like it. I think it needs some work, but for a 1.0 release, it's pretty solid.

The codes only work on the US store, so I'm still waiting. Really don't like how kick starter backers have to wait to play the game. I understand that this also has to do with the way apple works, but this will likely be the last time I kick start an ipad game.

When the app store process works properly, you're supposed to be able to get the thumbs-up from Apple (submission acceptance) and then control exactly when your game releases. It seems like they're failing at that pretty frequently though. We've seen more than one game released pre-maturely or even some like Middle Manager of Justice released when the game wasn't even supposed to go out (im curious how that happened)

I'd blame Apple for this one. The developer(s) are probably just as blindsided by this as the kickstarter backers are.

Dysplastic wrote:

The codes only work on the US store, so I'm still waiting. Really don't like how kick starter backers have to wait to play the game. I understand that this also has to do with the way apple works, but this will likely be the last time I kick start an ipad game.

polypusher is right. The Dev was completely blindsided. Source. Apple needs to get their sh*t together with premature releases. Summoner Wars, Middle Manager of Justice and now Alien Frontiers.

athros wrote:
Dysplastic wrote:

The codes only work on the US store, so I'm still waiting. Really don't like how kick starter backers have to wait to play the game. I understand that this also has to do with the way apple works, but this will likely be the last time I kick start an ipad game.

polypusher is right. The Dev was completely blindsided. Source. Apple needs to get their sh*t together with premature releases. Summoner Wars, Middle Manager of Justice and now Alien Frontiers.

I know it's not cool to have to wait, but the purpose of the campaign was to get enough money to make it happen at all... Or at least to get the game out in any kind of reasonable fashion. You were a patron who made that happen.

athros wrote:
Dysplastic wrote:

The codes only work on the US store, so I'm still waiting. Really don't like how kick starter backers have to wait to play the game. I understand that this also has to do with the way apple works, but this will likely be the last time I kick start an ipad game.

polypusher is right. The Dev was completely blindsided. Source. Apple needs to get their sh*t together with premature releases. Summoner Wars, Middle Manager of Justice and now Alien Frontiers.

That's just the thing. I'm happy to be a patron to make it happen, but with all the botched iOS releases recently I just don't trust that it will work. Apple's track record is too poor. I'll still kickstart stuff, but not stuff that depends on the apple release process to work properly.

I think it sucks that you had to Kickstart $10 to get a copy of a $4.99 game. Sure, you get your name in the credits but that is literally zero cost to them. I'm glad I didn't back it.

Dysplastic wrote:
athros wrote:
Dysplastic wrote:

The codes only work on the US store, so I'm still waiting. Really don't like how kick starter backers have to wait to play the game. I understand that this also has to do with the way apple works, but this will likely be the last time I kick start an ipad game.

polypusher is right. The Dev was completely blindsided. Source. Apple needs to get their sh*t together with premature releases. Summoner Wars, Middle Manager of Justice and now Alien Frontiers.

That's just the thing. I'm happy to be a patron to make it happen, but with all the botched iOS releases recently I just don't trust that it will work. Apple's track record is too poor. I'll still kickstart stuff, but not stuff that depends on the apple release process to work properly.

Three out of how many Apps in the store?

I understand it can be annoying, but at the end of the day, this is nothing more than a distribution glitch/miscommunication. Of course they can't give out codes until 'something exists', it's like complaining because a URL for an unpublished page is returning a 404.

I'd view it as being like the old school equivalent of the delivery truck breaking down. You'll get it, just be a little patient. It's not the end of the world.

SixteenBlue wrote:

I think it sucks that you had to Kickstart $10 to get a copy of a $4.99 game. Sure, you get your name in the credits but that is literally zero cost to them. I'm glad I didn't back it.

Maybe I'm too generous, but I feel that if you're Kickstarting something you want to see it made badly enough that you're willing to put down a little extra.

I think they also said Alien Frontiers would be $4.99 on the App Store when they did the Kickstarter. The money was to get the game done sooner, because it was basically done by one guy.

As for the actual app, I've enjoyed my one one play so far (easy against one AI). There's no hidden information, so it is good for pass and play. I had to look things up as I played, since I had forgotten some of the symbols (just like I would if I was playing IRL). Even on easy, the AI takes its time, and the log helps you see exactly what was done. Overall, I'm happy it's in my virtual boardgame collection.

shoptroll wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:

I think it sucks that you had to Kickstart $10 to get a copy of a $4.99 game. Sure, you get your name in the credits but that is literally zero cost to them. I'm glad I didn't back it.

Maybe I'm too generous, but I feel that if you're Kickstarting something you want to see it made badly enough that you're willing to put down a little extra.

Exactly. It's a patronage system, not a pre-order service... Although that's definitely what it seems to be morphing into. If the KickStarter had failed, we wouldn't HAVE the opportunity in October 2012 to buy this app at all.

SommerMatt wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:

I think it sucks that you had to Kickstart $10 to get a copy of a $4.99 game. Sure, you get your name in the credits but that is literally zero cost to them. I'm glad I didn't back it.

Maybe I'm too generous, but I feel that if you're Kickstarting something you want to see it made badly enough that you're willing to put down a little extra.

Exactly. It's a patronage system, not a pre-order service... Although that's definitely what it seems to be morphing into. If the KickStarter had failed, we wouldn't HAVE the opportunity in October 2012 to buy this app at all.

Fair enough. But even midieval patrons got to see the act before their guests, not vice versa. I know it's Apples fault, but it still calls into question the whole system. It's also not just a matter them not giving out codes for something that doesn't exist, it's a matter of them giving out codes that don't work because of region restrictions. Come on, no one thought of that?

This...

Hunters: Episode One HD by Rodeo Games
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/hunte...

And this

Hunters 2 by Rodeo Games
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/hunte...

Are both getting the 99c treatment.

As is this.

SAMURAI BLOODSHOW by SEGA CORPORATION
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/samur...

I'm tempted to get Samurai Bloodshow, but I'm worried there will a shed load of IAPs associated with card acquisition, anyone who has it care to enlighten me?

Can anyone recommend an audiobook app that reads directly from the iPhone library, or that maintains it's own library through drag and drop in iTunes? I ripped all of my old CD based audiobooks, but the audiobooks section in the Music app doesn't bookmark the position, so when I switch to listening to music, I lose my spot in the book.

Once I have finished working through my collection, I will probably just get Audible, but that is a few months away yet.

spider_j wrote:

Can anyone recommend an audiobook app that reads directly from the iPhone library, or that maintains it's own library through drag and drop in iTunes? I ripped all of my old CD based audiobooks, but the audiobooks section in the Music app doesn't bookmark the position, so when I switch to listening to music, I lose my spot in the book.

Once I have finished working through my collection, I will probably just get Audible, but that is a few months away yet.

I assume you have renamed the file extension as .m4b? IIRC, once you did that you had the ability to check an option in iTunes that retained the playback position.

No, I just told iTunes to recognise it as an audiobook. Each is a collection of tracks from a cd, not a single file. Would I need to rename all of the individual files? If that is the case, it might still be easier to use a seperate app that will keep the position.

spider_j wrote:

No, I just told iTunes to recognise it as an audiobook. Each is a collection of tracks from a cd, not a single file. Would I need to rename all of the individual files? If that is the case, it might still be easier to use a seperate app that will keep the position.

You shouldn't have to rename the files... in iTunes if you right-click on a file and hit "GET INFO ---> OPTIONS," there's a tick-box for "remember playback position."

Seems like renaming them allows you to maintain chapter files and playback position. Take a look at this thread - http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthre...

Thanks guys. I'll try bulk-selecting the files and changing the settings in iTunes. I have about 20 ripped CDs, at least 10 tracks on each, and really don't want to change the extension on each seperately, but select all->rename in windows should do the job, I guess.

I have plenty of books and radio plays I downloaded/ripped (as mp3s) and only thing I ever do is select multiple items, change media type to audiobook and check the option to remember position. Works every time.

The Audible app can access audiobooks you have synced through iTunes. If you go to categories in my library you can select iPod Library. Pretty sure you can save bookmarks on these files too, although I don't have any files in there right now so I can't be sure. As an added bonus, you can analyse how may hours you spend listening to audiobooks

Looks like I had it wrong :oops:. Sorry about that spider_j!